Concessions could be scrapped to save ailing park and ride

The future of Leicester’s struggling park and ride network has been thrown into doubt as council bosses seek to save cash.The service which allows people to leave their cars on the outskirts of Leicester and catch buses into the city is jointly run by the city and county councils.Both are grappling with huge cuts in their funding from the Government and are concerned about the future costs of running the service.Last year the councils jointly subsidised the scheme to the tune of £664,000 – up from £526,000 the year before.The service cost £1.737 million to run last year but only generated £1.073 million. Both County Hall and City Hall say the slow growth in commuters using the terminals at Enderby, Birstall and Meynell’s Gorse is not keeping pace with rising costs caused by inflation, fuel increases and rising staff salaries.Options being considered to reduce the subsidy include mothballing one of the sites, decommissioning the services altogether or raising charges and carrying out marketing campaigns this autumn.A decision on the way forward is expected next month.Park and ride was hailed a flagship project to cut congestion in the city centre and speed up the journeys of county commuters heading into town.However, most days the three car parks have lots of empty spaces.In 2011 there were 700,000 passenger journeys rising to about 830,000 last year.Mark Wills, the city council’s head of transport strategy, said: “We are seeing slow growth of four per cent in the last few years.“While we have patronage growth it won’t raise sufficient income to eliminate the subsidy.”He said the service had suffered because the largest terminals Enderby, with 1,100 parking spaces, and Birstall with 1,000, opened during the recession.He said cheap unauthorised city centre car parks had had an impact as well as competition from firms like NCP which cut charges immediately after the Enderby terminal opened in 2009.Mr WIlls said the councils had sought to increase income by offering unused spaces to employers such as Next, at Enderby.He also said some spaces had been closed off to reduce the cost of business rates.City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said the councils would seek to increase income before considering major changes.That could see the charges – £3 for a single driver in a car and £3.50 in a car with passengers – increased by 50p.The most controversial idea is to end a free service for the elderly and disabled, and asking them to pay 50p.Sir Peter said: “It is a modest charge to park your car all day and get a bus into town and back out.”He said he was aware increased charges could deter users.Sir Peter said the county council was fully aware of the proposals.He said: “We are in the park and ride venture together and we want to make it work together.”A County Hall spokesman said: “We have jointly drawn up a number of options with the city council for the service and we are carrying out an assessment to determine which approach will have the least impact.”City councillor Ted Cassidy urged the councils to keep all the services.He said: “There may always need to be a subsidy. The cost benefits are to make the city better.“It (closing services) will do huge damage to what we are trying to achieve.”He said he was opposed to charging concessionary users adding: “I am not happy about it. It’s almost not worth the concern or anger you would get for it.”

30 comments

Dont expect diversions by Arriva. They will talk about timetables etc etc. In Loughborough theyve refused to do any brief diversion as a protest against the new bus free policy in the town centre. Others, like Kinch, having opposed the change, are now being helpful and supportive. Arriva like to show their muscle, I'm afraid and be damned to change

Perhaps less people use the P & R from Meynalls Gorse and Enderby because they no longer go to the city centre. My wife and I use to us the Meynall Gorse every week but not now and we know many disabled people no longer use it because the cente is to far to walk. Why was the one from Meynalls that went to the centre only to be replaced by the Birstall service.

How rare tio find so many constructive intelligent sensible comments on here. It is the way the system has been operated that has revealed its idiocy. Yes the opening times are the most obvious and the routs and destinations. I often use the Nottingham City Park & Ride. Never these. Lets hope the City and County take all these comments on board before going off in a huff.

Another triumph from the motley crew at Leicester City Council. When will we ever learn? Just look at the rather miserable bunch of unqualified Councillors we put out trust in. None of them have any recent experience in the commercial world. Poor sad individuals who rely on allowances to pay the bills with the bonus of an occasional appearance in the local paper. Sadly some of them get the opportunity to push through ill –considered and expensive schemes that are bound to fail. Sad sad souls.

Agree with comment about going into the city. Apart from those who work in the city who this must be aimed at and a few shoppers at the weekend, only time I use the city is mainly restaurants and cinema. So if I come in after I believe about 5pm, John Lewis Car Park is £2 all evening.
At weekends if I need to shop I use Fosse Park or Thurmaston, free parking, or have my spots where I know I can park for free and then walk in a bit- and I am sure many people do the same.
Also the council have to got to release that people have different lives from go to work, go straight home. Many people go and do things straight after work, so want the car at hand rather than the inconvenience of having to get a bus to go and get the car to then go on somewhere.
I am sure the councillors would not understand as most of the consistencies are in walking distance (30 mins) of the council offices or are closer than the P&R so never use it themselves. Councillor Cassidy says keep spending the money. Why would any of his constituents want their council tax money spent on this? there can be no one from Fosse Ward actually going out and using the P&R as they have the current buses or could walk to the city centre it is that close!

You can tell the P&R was designed by the council in that it shuts at 7pm. Commercial business has moved on, people work different shifts, people do overtime, work from home or are happy to pay the costs of parking. Also the Birstall P&R is in the wrong place.
I would love to see the business model and the planning of who the council thought would use it and the business case. I worked for a company who changed location, they mapped where everyone lived? the bus routes and worked out how many car parking spaces were needed, then put on a couple of mini bus' at the companies expense to keep the people there as it would cost more than the bus to replace the people.
I get the feeling the council just thinks everyone works like them, and because we put a bus on people will use it. You have to think that I currently drive in and then walk to work and I pay a Car Park company £20 a week to park or less (Lee Circle is £4 per day) using a Car Parking website. Where I have my own seat, listen to what I want and also carry what I want in my car. I can then go anywhere before or after work straight away as soon as I get to my car. Or for £1 less per day, I can drive to a P&R site, wait for a bus, and then be driven in have to carry everything, not get a comfy seat or control the climate of the bus and still have to walk in. Then I have to get back to car at the P&R site before I can then do anything, such as go to a sporting club, supermarket pick the kids up!
Until the council starts thinking like the people who will use it they have no chance.
With a quarter of the money be spent on this you could save Western Park golf course and if you had some business sense you could still save the golf course and reduce the subsidy by half!